In time-of-flight distance measurement, the time delay between emission and reception of a laser pulse allows for distance calculation. The emitted pulse travels to a reflector and back to a detector where it is received. The time delay is proportional to the pulse travel distance. For a given reflector, the power level of the received pulse is assumed to be inversely proportional to the square of the pulse travel time (and the pulse travel distance) within a range of interest. The dynamic range of the power level of received pulses thus can be quite large. To accommodate this dynamic range, prior art systems apply an attenuation function such that detection sensitivity increases over time following emission of a send pulse.
However, typical prior art systems use an attenuation function based on a fixed function which has a fixed timing relative to the send pulse.
A consequence of this is a lack of adaptability to various measurement scenarios.